Green Party

Plans by Norfolk County Council to part-privatise the running of care homes in the county have been “called in” to a Cabinet Scrutiny committee meeting tomorrow (Tues Mar 16th)

The move is being orchestrated by the leader of the Green Party councillors, Andrew Boswell, in consultation with the other opposition groups. He is concerned that the scheme is being rushed through without the proper regard for democratic processes or risk assessment. Councillor Boswell has asked for a full detailed timeline of events from the inception of the idea to create a new care company to the publication of the Cabinet report. He wants to see correspondence, and the detailed appraisal of different options. He also wants to know who exactly was involved in creating the initiative and whether there’s been a legal appraisal of its viability.

He has asked for David Harwood, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Services and Harold Bodmer, Director of Adult Social Services, to attend the meeting, with other senior figures.

Norfolk County Council’s ruling cabinet has agreed in principle to create an in-house company to run and develop a new housing-with-care network for the county. The proposal would see up to two dozen council run residential homes closed and replaced by around 20 new housing with-care schemes, all run and developed by its arm-length firm Norse Group.

Norse is a group of companies created in 2006 and controlled in-house by Norfolk County Council to bid for contracts in the public and private sectors.

Councillor Boswell says seventy four out of eighty four councillors only heard about the proposal on a Thursday, then the council Cabinet approved it the following Monday. He said:

“In my view this is a scandal as all democratic process has been overriden in making this decision.

“When you are dealing with the future care of elderly people the future viability of the company is vitally important. I’m concerned about what would happen if, for example, Norse was taken over by another company. That could jeopardise the quality of care offered.”

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